Consultation 5: Is there really no room for PR with staple products?

Let's get straight to the point! "Even with standard products, there are ways to do PR!" That's all!

Oh dear, that was rude to those who look forward to my usual intro, wasn't it? Apparently, that rambling has quite a few fans, so if I skip it here, my page views will drop. Sorry, I took a risk. Heh. Maybe I'm getting stale. I hate that.

Anyway, this column has somehow kept going for over three years now. But recently, I got told, "You better step up your game or we're pulling the plug." So, I'm going to fight back and turn things around from here on out. Count on me, everyone. That means "#AskIguchi" is back for its fifth installment! I hope you'll stick with me for a little while longer.

Let's evaluate products and services from every angle

As I mentioned at the start, it's tough to find the right PR timing for products or services that have become somewhat established staples. Typically, PR opportunities come with new product launches, major revamps, minor updates, or any significant change that finally makes it newsworthy for the media.

But you can't just conjure up that many opportunities yourself. So, managers of staple products must constantly feel this dilemma. It's frustrating to be generating a certain level of sales yet unable to make a fresh appeal to society. Yeah, yeah, I get it—it's frustrating. But if you dare suggest to R&D, "Hey, can't we tweak this product a bit?", you'd probably get torn to shreds. That's right—tampering with a product takes serious guts. Especially when it's an established staple.

So here's a suggestion: "Instead of changing the product, why not change the target audience?" Because I believe the benefits consumers perceive from a product are inherently different for each person. If we could effectively communicate that, the same product could be reborn with entirely new value.

Introducing a "Repositioning" Case Study

One of my favorite success stories involves the repositioning of a conveyor belt sushi chain. Urban conveyor belt sushi places often have a compact space, right? You picture office workers rushing in during lunchtime, don't you? You just get this feeling that on weekday afternoons, they must be completely empty, right? Well, one conveyor belt sushi brand took on that challenge. They decided to attract customers during those quiet weekday afternoons. Their strategy? "Massively expand the cafe menu at conveyor belt sushi!" Especially in the city center, students on their way home from school got hooked on this menu. The result? Scenes of female students flooding the conveyor belt sushi shops during weekday afternoons. Hmm, pretty unexpected, right?

The origin of these initiatives started with offering "seafood broth soy sauce ramen" as a side menu, cleverly utilizing the seafood used for sushi. At roadside stores in regional areas frequented by families, many kids would say things like, "I want ramen, not sushi!" It became a massive hit, selling tens of millions of bowls in no time. That said, it's not just about becoming a family restaurant that serves anything. The menu cleverly repurposes ingredients and cooking systems from their core business. It's impressive how they maintain their core business without wavering, yet create numerous hooks to broaden their customer base.

Breaking existing perceptions is PR's specialty

In recent years, many overseas awards in the PR category have recognized cases that successfully "overturned consumers' preconceived notions." Changing deeply ingrained assumptions is incredibly difficult, but the payoff when it happens is enormous. After all, when something you thought "could never happen" turns upside down, it makes you want to talk about it.

This might seem like a high-calorie endeavor to tackle, but honestly, I think there are still plenty of preconceived notions held by information providers themselves – things like "I never noticed that" or "I thought it would be ignored." The true strength of PR lies in giving consumers that realization and then seamlessly guiding them to acceptance.

Often, we lose the very opportunity to challenge ourselves due to assumptions like, "This product is aimed at this target audience; even if it gets good reviews, how far can it really go?" But now, isn't it necessary to re-examine the social value of products? Even if the product itself hasn't changed, the external environment surrounding it has shifted dramatically. Benefits that went unnoticed or unconsidered at the product's launch may finally blossom with a new target audience. If new products and services could be constantly created, such efforts might seem unnecessary. But re-examining your existing assets from various angles could uncover new value.

So, what happens if you reevaluate your existing products and services from the perspective of "changing the target"? It might be an interesting trial to discuss this with your team. Additionally, there are repositioning techniques like "changing how it's used" or "changing the situation," but we'll save those for next time (yes, it's a delay tactic, just as you imagined...). See you next time!